Whether you get a traffic violation because you forgot to use your turn signal or a speeding ticket because you were driving too fast on a two-lane road, it’s common to freak out when you receive a traffic ticket.

A plea bargain agreement may be reached before going to court, resulting in reduced charges.

You’ll maintain your driving privileges. Depending on the state of your driving record, one more traffic ticket could cause the state to suspend or revoke your driving privileges. Keeping the ticket off your record will prevent this, sparing you from the inconvenience of public transportation and soliciting rides from friends and family.

Depending on the nature of your work, having charges dropped could save your job. This bears especially true with commercial drivers.

Depending on the traffic ticket and your driving record, no mandatory enrollment in a court-approved traffic school, saving you time and tuition costs.

Contest Traffic Ticket Disadvantages

The negatives behind challenging traffic tickets in court include:

Major time drain. Contesting a ticket requires at least two weekday court visits. And if you opt to represent yourself, you will need to prepare your case by gathering and organizing evidence, which includes contacting witnesses.

You must pay legal fees if you hire a traffic ticket attorney. Depending on the length of the trial and the nature of the case, this could be extremely costly.

There are no guarantees. Even after presenting your case, the judge could still rule against you. This means not only will you still face all penalties associated with the traffic citation (fines, points, possible car insurance rate increase…), but you will also be saddled with court and legal fees.

Did we miss anything? Share your traffic ticket experiences with our online community by leaving your wisdom in the comment section below.

Melissa Crumish is a proud mother of three and hails from Williamsville, New York. When not pretending to enjoy watching middle school soccer games, she writes, blogs, and edits. More articles by Melissa Crumish